I’ve collected over 140 social media acronyms and abbreviations and placed them here in this post, complete with definitions and quick navigation to help you find the terms you’re interested in. Let me know if there are others that you’ve noticed that didn’t make this list!

Take the social media acronym quiz!

In creating this post, I quickly put together a short and sweet quiz on some of the terms that appear in the glossary here. Test your knowledge to see which acronyms you know and which you might learn!

AMA – Ask Me Anything

These initials can be used in social media updates as an open call for questions, and the acronym is also quite popular as a recurring question-and-answer series on Reddit, featuring experts and/or well-known names in a huge variety of fields.

Ex. “I’m doing an AMA on Reddit tomorrow at 3pm ET all about space travel!”

API – Application Programming Interface

Have you ever wondered how your favorite app connects to so another of your much-loved services? Buffer, for instance, uses the Twitter API to schedule and post tweets. In general, an API outlines the specifics of software applications, telling components how they should act on an interface.

ASL – Age/Sex/Location

—B—

b/c, bc – Because

Ex. “I’m late b/c traffic.

B2B – Business-to-business

Companies that focus on selling goods and services to other companies. An enterprise analytics tool, for instance, would be a B2B product. Often times you may see marketing strategies and statistics broken up between B2B and B2C because some of the tactics and tips may differ based on this distinction.

B2C – Business-to-consumer

Companies that focus on selling to consumers. A clothing retailer, for instance, would be a B2C company.

B4 – Before

Ex. “Ask Alice. She got there B4 me.”

BAE – Before Anyone Else

Used as a term of endearment for someone you care about.

Ex. “My BAE and I are staying in tonight.”

BFF – Best Friends Forever

Ex. “Troy and Abed are total BFFs!”

BRB – Be right back

Ex. “brb, making nachos.”

BTAIM – Be that as it may

For use in arguments and discussions online.

Ex. “BTAIM, I still prefer comments on blog posts.”

BTW – By the way

—C—

This law was passed in 2003 in the United States in hopes of cutting down on unsolicited email. Per the rules of CAN-SPAM, there is a lengthy list of requirements that businesses or individuals must comply with when sending out email—items like providing the ability to unsubscribe, including a physical mailing address, and no misleading subject lines.

CMS – Content Management System

A CMS is software used to organize, edit, and publish content. WordPress is the CMS we use for the Buffer blog. Ghost is another popular blogging platform that could be used as a CMS.

CPC – Cost per click

In online advertising, cost-per-click refers to the price paid by an advertiser who is charged every time someone clicks on an ad (rather than every time the ad is shown). The cost-per-click is the dollar amount that the advertiser pays for each click.

CPM – Cost per thousand

In comparison to cost-per-click, cost-per-thousand is based on the impressions (views) of an ad. In CPM, the advertiser is charged for every 1,000 impressions of an ad. Fun fact: The “M” in CPM stands for “Mille,” which is the roman numeral name for 1,000 (in case you were wondering why it’s CPM instead of CPT).

CR – Conversion rate

CR is the number of people who take an action, divided by the number of people who could have. For example, if you have 100 visits to your landing page and 25 people click the button, the button has a 25 percent conversion rate.

CRM – Customer Relationship Management

CRM is a way of managing the interaction and communication between your business and its leads or customers. In certain ways, CRM is like an address book with super powers. Salesforce is one of the leading CRM providers online.

CSS – Cascading stylesheet

This code language gives websites their look. The layout, colors, fonts, borders, spacing, and all other visual elements of a website occur because of the styles declared in CSS.

CTA – Call-to-action

The word or phrase that’s used to tell people what to do. Click here. Buy now. Learn more. Join us.

CTR – Clickthrough rate

Like conversion rate, this measures the amount of people who took an action—in the case of CTR, the action is a click—divided by the number of people who could have. In email marketing, for instance, CTR describes the rate at which people clicked on a link in an email, taking into consideration the number of people who received the email.

CX – Customer experience

The sum of all experiences a customer has with you. This could involve interactions with your product, your website, your customer support, or your social media.

—F—

F2F – Face to face

FaTH – First and Truest Husband

This doesn’t necessarily refer to one’s actual husband but rather anyone you feel a particular bond toward.

Ex. “This relationship has been so incredible, you’ll always be my FaTH.”

FB – Facebook

FBF – Flashback Friday

A theme where you share an old picture or status from back in the day, FBF is often represented in hashtag form (and it’s quite similar to another weekly meme, Throwback Thursday).

FBO – Facebook official

This term refers to one’s relationship status on Facebook. When you’re FBO, you’ve set your status on Facebook to “In a relationship.” Along with signifying the start of a relationship, these initials can also be a way of stating that you won’t believe something until you see it online.

Ex. “I got a new car! It’s FBO! (picture)”

FF – Follow Friday

A trend that began on Twitter, Follow Friday lets you share the names of other Twitter users whom you think your followers should follow.

Ex. “FF: @leowid @courtneyseiter @nmillerbooks #buffer”

FOMO – Fear of Missing Out

FOMO describes a type of social anxiety where you feel that if you miss an opportunity you might miss out on something great. FOMO comes into play quite often with social media where some people are compelled to stay connected so they never miss a big moment.

FUTAB – Feet up, take a break

FYI – For your information

—G—

G+ – Google+

G2G – Got to to

Ex. “Talk to you later! G2G!”

GA – Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the tool created by Google to help you track your website traffic. We use Google Analytics here at Buffer to pull reports on our most popular content and set goals for conversions of Buffer blog readers to Buffer app customers.

Gr8 – Great

GTG – Got to go

GTR – Got to run

—H—

HBD – Happy birthday

Ex. “My best friend is turning 30 today! HBD @annief!”

HMB – Hit me back

HMU – Hit me up

Ex. “Let’s chat this week. HMB on my cell.”

HT – Hat tip

A hat tip is a way for users to give thanks or acknowledgement to other users. It refers to the practice of tipping one’s hat toward a person out of gratitude. You see HT a lot in association with shared content, along with “via,” “by,” and “cc.” In some cases, HT can also refer to “Heard Through,” which provides a similar meaning to Hat Tip.

Ex. “51 of the Best Writing Articles bit.ly/link HT: @redman”

HTH – Here to help / Happy to help

Ex. “Anyone need help figuring out the Facebook News Feed? HTH.”

HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language

HTML is the coding language used to build webpages and any other information viewable on the web. HTML is the foundation and the frame of every website you visit. CSS adds the color and layout to the page.

—I—

IANAD – I am not a doctor

IANAL – I am not a lawyer

ICYMI – In case you missed it

This one can be used when resharing something from earlier or in a “things you should know today” format. You might find it often in recap-type posts and updates.

Ex. “ICYMI, the Buckeyes won the national championship! #gobucks”

IDC – I don’t care

Ex. “Raining today. IDC.”

IDK – I don’t know

Ex. “Super tough test today! Our 14th president? IDK. ¯_(ツ)_/¯”

IG – Instagram

IKR – I know, right?

Ex. “ikr RT: @vimeo The most amazing announcement ever. Gotta see this video.”

ILY – I love you

IM – Instant message

Popular instant messaging apps like AOL Instant Messenger predate the more modern social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Some social networks still have built-in instant messaging features. Facebook Chat is perhaps the most well-known (and widely used) version of IM still around.

IMHO – In my humble opinion

IMO – In my opinion

Ex. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to eat and drive at the same time, IMHO.”

IO – Insertion order

Used in advertising and marketing environments, an insertion order is a written contract between an advertiser and an ad agency or media rep, often used for print or broadcast ads. Typical IOs include air date and time, number of times for the ad to be shown, and costs.

IRL – In real life

This phrase is often used to distinguish between interactions and events that happen online versus the real world.

Ex. “Huge fan of @guy! We met IRL a few years back. :)”

ISP – Internet service provider

Who do you pay for Internet? This is your ISP. Comcast is the largest ISP in the United States.

—J—

JK – Just kidding

—K—

KPI – Key Performance Indicator

KPIs are the benchmarks and goals that are most important for your business. They help you determine how well your campaigns and strategies are performing. Social media KPIs could be the amount of engagement or shares you’re receiving on your profiles. You could also track clicks and conversions back to your website via social.

—L—

L8 – Late

LI – LinkedIn

LMAO – Laughing my a** off

Ex. “Camping was in tents/intense! LMAO!”

LMK – Let me know

Ex. “Anyone interested in chatting about small biz marketing? LMK. kevan at bufferapp.com”

LMS – Like my status

You might see this acronym appear on tweets or Facebook posts, asking those who read it to give the post a like. It’s also an acronym for “Learning Management System,” software for online education courses.

Ex. “Got the new iPhone! So stoked! LMS.”

LOL – Laughing out loud

LOLz – Laughing out loud (plural/sarcastic)

Lolz is the plural of LOL, but instead of having an “s,” people write it with a “z”. Some say that LOLz means you’re laughing out loud sarcastically.

—M—

MCM – Man crush Monday

This acronym refers to a weekly trend where users mention or post photos about a man whom they like or admire.

MM – Music Monday

Music Monday was originally used to share the music you were listening to that day. It’s no longer as popular of an abbreviation as it used to be.

MT – Modified tweet

Modified tweets occur when a user is attempting to manually retweet but the tweet is too long and you have to modify the original tweet. The issues with length can occur if you’re trying to add your own commentary to an already-long tweet.

OTP – One true pairing

—P—

P2P – Person to person, or peer to peer

Similar to F2F, this abbreviation can refer to an in-person meeting, as opposed to an online get together. Also, P2P can come up in a business arena as a way of distinguishing a type of network, tool, meeting, or event.

POTD – Photo of the day

Popular on Instagram, this abbreviation often appears as a hashtag for those who want to show off their best photo of the day.

Ex. “Check out this sunset! #POTD”

PPC – Pay per click

In online advertising, pay-per-click is when an advertiser pays based on the number of times their ad is clicked. This is also known as cost-per-click (CPC, mentioned above). Google’s ads are perhaps the most common type of PPC avaialble.

PM – Private message

Ex. “Send me a PM! :)”

PPL – People

Ex. “Tons of PPL here. This place is packed!”

PR – PageRank, or Public relations

PageRank refers to an element of the Google ranking algorithm that assigns your webpage a numerical value from 0 to 10 based on the number and quality of links to the page. In this way, PageRank is hoping to measure the quality of the page itself.

PV – Pageviews

One of the most widely-used metrics in Google Analytics and web traffic tracking, pageviews refers to the number of times a user visits a webpage. Unique pageviews goes a step further and counts only the pageviews of unique individuals (for example, if Tom visited a page three times and Amy visited once, pageviews would be four, and the unique pageviews would be two).

—R—

ROFL – Rolling on the floor laughing

ROFLMAO – Rolling on the floor laughing my a** off

Most often used with the simple ROFL, this abbreviation comes as a response to something really funny, to a greater degree than a LOL.

Ex. “Listening to the new Brian Regan CD! ROFL! This is so great. :)”

ROI – Return on investment

This marketing measurement looks at the amount of profit you make based on the difference between revenue and expenses. In social media marketing, ROI tends to be an elusive metric since revenue can be difficult to measure directly from social. Often times, ROI is extended to include a return in clicks, engagement, or new followers based on the time and resources devoted to a social network.

Ex. It costs $5,000 a year to maintain your website (domain, hosting, copywriting, design fees, etc.), but is generates $20,000/year in revenue. Based on this example your ROI would be 400% ($20,000 divided by $5000).

RSS – Really simple syndication

Many people choose RSS as the way to keep up with the latest blog posts from their favorite blogs, via a feed reader. Feedly is one of the most popular feed readers, letting you pull in content from any site with an RSS feed.

RT – Retweet

Twitter has added native retweets into their app, so whenever you spy an RT in your timeline now, that user has manually added the RT. For best practices, retweets are to begin with “RT @username” followed by the original tweet. You can add your own commentary before or after.

Ex. “Must read. RT @intercom A New Way to Onboard.”

RTD – Real-time data

Certain social media dashboards and website tracking tools measure data in real-time. For instance, Chartbeat can tell you how many visitors are on your website this moment, including which pages they’re on and how they’re interacting with your site. This real-time data can be super interesting to see as well as valuable to help optimize your content and web pages.

—S—

SaaS – Software as a service

SaaS companies provide services via software either online or downloaded to your computer. For instance, Buffer is an SaaS company.

SEM – Search engine marketing

SEM refers to the way that companies and brands promote their website within search engines. The two main elements of SEM are paid advertising and search engine optimization.

SEO – Search engine optimization

SEO refers to the practice of optimizing a website so that it ranks highly in search engine result pages. Some key elements of SEO are content, keywords, headlines, meta information, backlinks, and site structure/speed.

SMO – Social media optimization

SMP – Social media platform

Social media platforms may include sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

SoLoMo – Social, Local, Mobile

This refers to a localized and mobile-centric version of search engine results. SoLoMo takes advantage of a phone or tablet’s GPS technologies to deliver a user experience (search results, notifications, etc.) based on location.

SOV – Share of voice

Share of Voice is the percentage of all the online content/conversations about your company compared to the content/conversations about your competitors. You might think of it as a form of online market share. Tools like Social Mention can help in discovering your Share of Voice.

—T—

TBH – To be honest

TBT – Throwback Thursday

Often used as a hashtag, TBT is when users share a photo from their past, often baby photos or, in the case of companies, photos from their early years.

Ex. “Here’s the first version of our logo! Wow, it’s come a long way! #TBT”

TGIF – Thank goodness it’s Friday

Ex. “Been a long week. TGIF!”

Thx – Thanks

Ex. “Big thx to @moz for hosting an awesome conference this week!”

TIL – Today I learned

Ex. “TIL how tax credits work.”

TL;DR – Too Long; Didn’t Read

This abbreviation may appear in a comment, post, or tweet, where the user is mentioning they weren’t able to completely read an article because of its length. Also, some articles or notes may include this abbreviation in lieu of a summary heading.

Ex. “tl;dr RT @cnn The Full Transcript from the State of the Union Address.”

TMI – Too much information

Ex. “TMI RT @mashable The Percentage of People who Use Social Media in the Bathroom.”

TOS – Terms of Service

Terms of service are the legal notices for browsing a website or using an app.

TTYL – Talk to you later

TTYN – Talk to you never

TTYS – Talk to you soon

Ex. “#bufferchat was awesome! TTYL, everyone!”

Txt – Text

Ex. “Looking forward to the conference. Send me a txt when you get there!”

—U—

UGC – User generated content

This refers to all the different types of content—articles, updates, comments, videos, photos, etc.—that are produced by a site’s users. For instance, all the great presentations on SlideShare are UGC.

UI – User interface

User interface is the aspects of a website or product with which the user interacts with directly. To use an analogy, user interface is the saddle, the stirrups, and the reins. In an app like Buffer, the user interface is the buttons, the composer windows, the screen and mouse and keyboard.

URL – Uniform Resource Locator

A URL is the web address for a specific page. The URL for the Buffer blog is https://blog.bufferapp.com. You can see the URL for any web page by looking in the address bar at the top of your browser window.

UV – Unique visitor

A unique visitor is an individual website visitor who is counted only once in the traffic stats, regardless of how many times they visit or pages they view.

UX – User experience

User experience describes the way a user feels when using a website or a product. It’s the sum of the user’s experiences. To use an analogy, it would be like the feeling you get riding a horse (as opposed to the horse, the stirrups, the saddle themselves).

—W—

w/ – With

WBU – What about you?

WCW – Woman crush Wednesday

Like Man crush Monday, Woman crush Wednesday is a chance for social media users to share an update or a photo with reference to a woman they like or admire.

WDYMBT – What do you mean by that?

Ex. “WDYMBT @kevanlee?”

WOM – Word of mouth

Another way to think about this is “sentiment.” What are people saying about your brand or product? Word of mouth has some huge implications for growth, and it spreads even faster as social media expands as a medium.

WOTD – Word of the Day

WOTD is a fun way to share a new word that you’ve picked up (and like many on the list, it could also be used sarcastically).

Ex. “Pandiculation – feeling stiff when you wake up from a nap. #WOTD”

YSK – You should know

YT – YouTube

—Z—

Further reading

This list of acronyms and abbreviations is far from complete. If there’s something you’ve found on social media that isn’t covered here, I’d love to add it to the list!

And if you’re curious for more, here are some links to several helpful articles about social media acronyms and abbreviations. One of my favorites is a report by the FBI that detailed out a huge list of social media acronyms. Their report is 83 pages long!

Kevan, much enjoyed the further reading links. I am working on a serious, business only acronyms list right now and I think some of those links will help jar my memory of things I have had to google in the past. Hey is that bit in your bio about “second guessing football coaches” referring to Bill? I hope not! Another discussion for another time anyway. 🙂

As a training and development professional and a human being, I avoid the use of acronyms as much as humanly possible. Acronyms mean different things to different people. To me, it feels a bit inconsiderate to assume that people will understand all the acronyms in conversation or while reading.

There have been studies that people stop comprehending the words they are reading as soon as they run into a word they do not recognize. They are busy trying to suss it out based on the context of the sentence and the subconscious is working so hard on that information the topics that follow are lost. I feel the same way about acronyms. My brain spends so much time trying to decipher the message I lose the importance of the message.

Wow, this is amazingly useful! I’m pretty good at these types of things, but I only knew about 75% or so of them! It’s great to have these in one place so I can come back and search next time I find one I don’t know. Cheers!

Great list! I’d like to add some that I use often in my circles – NM – nevermind and NP – no problem, also as @MaureenMulder:disqus said: PM.

Olly Benson

WTF? This list is incomplete without that acronym.

Also TTFN – Ta-ta for now is a fairly common one that is missing.

Jacqueline

Add PMSROFLMAO (peed my self rolling on the floor laughing my ass off), or variations! We could keep adding to that, but I think they’ll get the point, CS (chuckling softly)! I started adding CS to chats with some friends because I got tired of LOL and, frankly, it was truer or more appropriate. I think every group, whether it’s friends or animal advocates or WHY (what have you), can modify or add to the usual list of acronyms to suit themselves.

G2G – should be Got To Go [you may like to correct it since it’s showing as Got to to].

Horatio

#PMHT or PMHT is the biggest one around these days. Pardonmyhashtag but I guess you knew that already #YesYouDid #PMHT

Muhammad Waseem

Kevan i want to know full form of Xd and its meaning pls help me out

Arbe

sorry but omg majority of these are for business like wtf? I’m v dissaapointer rn

Steve Brown

Great list but missed PMHT or #PMHT for PardonMyHashTag
#VeryEnlighteningThough #PMHT

Kenneth Chinedu

Could you please provide a JSON or XML format of the acronyms/abbreviations and full forms? I’m sure many programmers out there would love to use it in their apps:)
P.S: I’m urgently in need of it myself

Much obliged such a great amount for the comment here, Caryn! That is so intriguing to read.. I can imagine myself doing some of this when I go over specific words. Thanks for adding this to the discussion!

SOTS: I saw this at the end of a post and have no idea to what he was referring. (“All you have to do is walk through the mess decks of an aircraft carrier at 2000 and you will see all the mess deck loving going on. SOTS” )

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